


Five Times Robert Called Liv His Daughter

by miss_whimsy



Series: Five Times: Roblivion Family Fics [3]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Angst, Family, Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 11:00:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8665039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_whimsy/pseuds/miss_whimsy
Summary: Five years in the life of Robert Sugden.





	

** Thirty-one **

Robert ran down the hospital corridor, ignoring several nurses and security guards who told him to stop. He vaguely recognised the nurse at the desk but thought nothing of it. He spent half his life in this fucking hospital. He should probably start chipping into the weekly bonus ball pot. 

"Liv Flaherty," he said, breathless. "She was brought in a little while ago."

The nurse looked him over and tapped a few times on the keyboard. "What's your relationship to the patient?"

"She's my daughter," he snapped, frustrated. "You rang me. Let me see her."

The nurse stared at him, unimpressed, and he knew exactly who she was now. She hadn't believed him then either. "Down there on the right. She's waiting to be seen by a doctor."

Robert dismissed the woman instantly from his mind and raced around the corner to the waiting room.

Liv was sat in the corner, holding her arm gingerly against her chest. She looked so small and hurt. Robert wanted to take all her pain away.

"What have you done?" he asked, kneeling down in front of her.

"Nice to see you too," she said. "I think my arm's broken."

"How?"

"Fell down," she muttered and glared at him. "If I'd wanted a lot of questions I'd have told them to ring Aaron."

"Shit," Robert said, pulling out his phone.

"No, you can't," Liv pleaded. "Robert."

"How are we going to hide a broken arm from him, Liv? Think," he said and dialled Aaron's number.

"He's going to be mad," Liv sniffed.

"Well that'll make two of us," Robert assured her. "Did someone do this to you?"

"I fell."

"Did someone push you?" Robert asked, then stood suddenly when Aaron answered. "Stay calm, alright?"

"Well, that's not likely to happen now is it?" Aaron said. "What have you done?"

"Oh cheers," Robert said sharply. "It's Liv. She's in hospital."

Aaron did not stay calm.

When Robert hung up two minutes later. Liv was smirking at him. 

"I told you."

"I'm not bothered," Robert said and sat down next to her. "Tell me what actually happened."

"Nothing."

"Look," he said softly, leaning towards her, resting his elbows on his knees, "you can tell me the truth now and we come up with something that won't make Aaron hit the roof. Or you can keep lying and he'll be upset and disappointed until you break down later and tell him. Which would you prefer?"

"You'd really lie to Aaron for me?"

Robert was torn. He really didn't want to lie to Aaron about anything. But Liv was in pain and obviously scared about telling the truth.

"I can't promise I won't tell him if it's something I think he needs to know," Robert told her honestly. "But I'm on your side, Liv. Let me help you."

"Liv Flaherty," a nurse called from further down the corridor.

"Saved by the bell," Robert said, giving her a reassuring smile. "Do you want me to come with you?"

For a moment he was certain she was going to refuse, but then she nodded quickly and stood. "Thanks, Robert."

He grabbed her bag and coat from under the chair and followed her in to see the doctor.

 

** Thirty-two **

“Are we boring you, Mr Sugden?”

Robert looked up from his phone. The three investors he was meeting with were all staring at him with varying levels of annoyance.

“No,” Robert said quickly and placed his phone on the table. “It’s just…”

“Yes?”

Robert sighed, unable to stop himself from reaching for his phone again and checking it. 

“My daughter gets her GCSE results today,” he explained. “She said she’d text me.”

As one, the three men on the other side of the table relaxed. 

“Oh, you should have said.”

“Of course you’ll be anxious.”

Robert nodded. “She wants to do her A Levels. Go to university. I never did that. No one in our family did.” He smiled at his phone. “I just know she can do well. I want her to do well. Sorry.”

“No, no, don’t apologise. I was exactly the same.”

“And me.”

“She’s an artist,” Robert told them, business forgotten. “So she keeps saying she doesn’t need university. But.. I don’t know. I’d like her to go. She’s stubborn, though.”

“They all are at that age.”

“My son was just the same. Thought he could just walk into a job. But university was the making of him. He loved it. Became a teacher in the end.”

Robert smiled. “I know she can do well. She was just so stressed this year. So much work.”

“It’s hard, isn’t it? When you see them struggling?”

“Oh,” Robert said, laughing in agreement. “If I could have sat the damn things for her, I would.”

Their laughter was interrupted by Robert’s phone, which had started to ring.

“Do you mind if I…?”

“Go, go,” one of them said. “We’ll be waiting.”

Robert hurried from the room, pressing the phone to his ear. “Liv? How did you do?”

“I passed everything,” she yelled excitedly. “Aaron’s crying.”

“I am not,” Aaron yelled in the background, over the pop of a cork.

“Aaron cries at everything, though,” Robert scoffed, wiping away a few tears of his own. “Remember that John Lewis advert?”

Liv laughed. “I know. It wasn’t even Christmas.”

“I didn’t cry at that!” Aaron yelled.

“Are you starting on the champers without me?”

“Chas cracked it open as soon you left,” Liv teased. “We can wait for you.”

“No, no. Go on. Enjoy yourself,” Robert told her. “I’ll be done in a bit.”

“Are you sure?” 

“I can take us all out when I get back. Into Leeds, yeah? For a meal.”

Liv giggled and Robert’s heart clenched. “Thank you.”

“I’m so proud of you.”

“Aaron wants a word.”

There was a brief moment of silence and then Aaron said, “Hang on.”

“What am I hanging on for?” A door slammed. “Where are you?” 

“The pub,” Aaron said. “The staircase.”

“Okay,” Robert said with a smile. “She did well.”

“She did amazing,” Aaron said. Robert could hear the pride in his voice. “Next stop A Levels.”

“You’re freaking out.”

“I’m not.”

“There’s no need.”

“I am not freaking out,” Aaron assured him. “I’m just happy for her.”

“Me too,” Robert said with a smile. “I’ll be home in an hour.”

“I thought you had a meeting.”

“I left the meeting to answer my phone,” Robert told him. “They understood. And they’ll understand why I have to leave.”

“I love you,” Aaron said. “I’ll see you soon, yeah.”

“Soon,” Robert agreed. “Love you too.”

 

** Thirty-three **

“It’s a nice car!”

Robert rolled his eyes as the man approached him and kept his focus on the car he was looking at. “Uh huh.”

“Good little family car for the city.”

“I have a car,” Robert said. “This is for someone else.”

“Something for your wife then,” the man said with a grin and a nod to Robert’s ring.

Robert rocked back and forth on his heels for a moment. “My daughter actually.”

“Oh.” He gave Robert another look, as though reassessing. 

“She’s taking her test next week,” Robert continued, proudly. “She’s going to pass first time, just like her brother.”

“Oh, you have two kids?”

“No,” Robert told him, turning back to face him. “Her brother’s my husband.”

He took a moment to savour the look on the man’s face.

“Um…”

“So, I was thinking about this one,” Robert said, turning away with a smile. He kicked one of the tyres. Want to tell me about it?”

“It’s very economical,” the man said, looking relieved to be falling back into his sales pitch. “Well built, nippy.”

“Nippy?” Robert nodded, amused. “Liv certainly is that.”

“The price is very competitive.”

“Money’s not really an issue here.”

Robert’s eyes went again to the Audi, parked by the door of the forecourt.

“She’s a beauty, isn’t she? Not really suitable for your daughter, though.”

Robert frowned. “Why not?”

“Well…”

“You don’t know Liv,” Robert said, continuing his circuit of the boring orange Hyundai that Liv would probably like and Aaron probably wouldn’t kill him for buying. “She could handle it. She’s smart.”

“Of course,” the salesman said quickly. “But if she’s just passed her test. Well. The insurance would be astronomical.”

Robert stopped walking and folded his arms across his chest. “Do I look like I can’t afford to treat my daughter?”

Aaron would divorce him if he bought that Audi. Still, it was nice to have a little fun with the staff.

“It’s got a great safety record,” the man said, backtracking. “It would be an excellent choice.”

He let the man continue his patter, debated with himself as to whether he had enough time for a test drive and had just decided that he did when his phone rang.

“Excuse me.”

The man shut up, fake smile plastered on his face. Robert struggled not to laugh.”

“Hello, darling,” he said into the phone.

“Darling?” Aaron echoed back to him. “Where are you and how much trouble are you in?”

“The faith you have in me warms my heart.”

“I have complete faith in you,” Aaron told him. “Just let me know if I need to sweeten up Cain to get him to come save you.”

“There’s sweetening up and there’s working a minor miracle,” Robert pointed out. 

“Nah, you’re family now,” Aaron reminded him. “You’d probably just owe him one.”

“I think I’d rather be beaten up.”

“Like you have any say in the matter.”

Robert laughed and Aaron laughed, and Robert was suddenly overwhelmed with wishing he was with him.

“I’ll be back soon. I’m just buying a car.”

“Right,” Aaron said, “well I just rang to- You what?”

“You heard.”

“Robert, if you buy that Audi…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,” Robert said over him. “I have to go. See you later, sweetheart.”

He was going to pay for that, he knew. 

Well, it was worth it.

 

** Thirty-four **

Robert leant against the passenger door of his car and waited as the last of the staff shuffled out into the car park. 

“Joe!” he called out and smiled when the boy froze. “Let me give you a lift.”

“No, you’re alright. I’m going to get the bus.”

Robert stepped forward and opened the car door. “I insist.” His smile remained in place, but he lowered his voice. “You can get in the car or I can put you in the car. Make the right choice, eh?”

Joe looked around, but Robert wasn’t worried about him making a run for it.

“Why should I?”

“It’ll be quicker than getting the bus,” Robert said. “Text your mum, tell her I’m bringing you.”

Joe pulled out his phone immediately. “You really want me to text her?”

“You’ll be home in twenty minutes. She can put your tea on. Come on.”

Text sent, Joe got in the car and fastened his seatbelt. “You’ better take me straight home. My mum knows you’re driving me.”

Robert nodded and they set off. “I just thought we should have a little chat.”

“‘Bout what?”

“You made my daughter cry,” Robert told him. “You can see why I might want to hurt you.”

“It was just a fight,” Joe said, hunching closer to the door.

“No,” Robert said, “it was my little girl in tears, telling me she thought you’d never hurt her. So, you have fifteen minutes to convince me I shouldn’t break every bone in your body.”

“My mum knows I’m with you,” Joe told him.

Robert laughed. “You think I’d do it now? No, I’ll wait until you barely remember I exist and then I’ll come for you. Clock’s ticking, kid. Better start talking.”

“What do you want me to say? We were going to have sex. She stopped. It’s not my fault she’s a tease.”

The car jerked to a halt and Robert leant in close to Joe, forcing him back against the window. “I don’t know what I did to make you think that I was a good guy or someone you could joke around with. You think Aaron’s got a temper? That is nothing, nothing compared to me. So you’re going to treat Liv with respect with every word from now on, or they’re never going to find your body. Do you understand?”

Joe nodded quickly, shaking a little. Robert sat back and started the car again. 

“Start again.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not good enough. And I don’t believe you anyway.”

“I loved her. We talked about it. I thought it’s what she wanted.”

“You pressured her.”

“No. We talked about it.”

“And when she changed her mind, suddenly she’s a tease? And you’re calling her all sorts? Talking about Gordon.”

“I never…”

“Don’t lie to me,” Robert interrupted. “You’re not good at it.”

“She made me angry. And I mean, I didn’t do anything. I could have.”

“You want points for not assaulting my daughter? Is that what you’re seriously saying to me?” Robert asked, incredulous.

“No,” Joe said, quickly. “I just…”

“Start again,” Robert said. “You have ten minutes now.”

 

** Thirty-five **

Aaron didn't really get jealous anymore when Robert chatted women up. He trusted that nothing would ever come of it. Robert just really couldn't help himself. Flirting was like breathing to him and most women took one look at his beautiful face and his easy smile and just drifted towards him. Aaron could relate to it. He still gravitated towards Robert like a flower following the sun, even after seven years of knowing him and five years of being married to him.

It had been Aaron's idea to come out, to get away from the village and the post-Christmas blues January brought. A few drinks in town on a Friday night and then home, to spend the weekend doing whatever they wanted.

Robert had been at the bar for a good twenty minutes now though and as far as Aaron could see no drinks had been ordered as yet. He'd spent most of the time talking to the petite blonde woman beside him, who definitely had ordered and paid for a bottle of wine that was now sat between them, untouched, as though Robert was going to be the one sharing it with her.

And Aaron wasn't jealous. Not at all. Just a bit annoyed that he still didn't have the pint he'd been promised nearly half an hour ago. And really if he'd wanted to sit and watch Robert flirt with some blonde woman they could have stayed at home and had a drink with Debbie, because at least it was funny when she told him to fuck off, which she always managed to do in increasingly creative ways and Robert always laughed and squeezed Aaron's thigh, and Debbie always ended up smiling into her wine and winking at Aaron, like the three of them had a joke that no one else understood. 

This wasn't a joke, though. This woman had her hand on Robert's arm now and Robert had taken out his phone and their heads were bent close together as he tapped at the screen. But Aaron wasn't jealous because sure Robert was an idiot, but he wasn't that much of an idiot. Not stupid enough to try and pull someone while his husband sat glaring at the back of his head across the bar.

Robert looked up from the phone and Aaron saw his nose wrinkle up like he didn't understand what was happening. A second later he straightened up fully and pointed at Aaron, giving him a little smile and a wave. The woman did not look amused, but Aaron couldn't stop himself from laughing. Yeah, Robert was an idiot alright, but he was Aaron's idiot.

The woman grabbed her bottle of wine and the two wine glasses and started to weave her way across the room. Robert had turned back to the bar without another glance at her and finally ordered their drinks.

A text message made his phone light up on the table in front of him and Aaron tapped in his passcode with a secret smile.

_"Sorry. 2 mins. Got a bit carried away."_

Aaron sent a string of question marks back but Robert was talking to the bartender and had pushed his phone into the back pocket of his jeans.

The woman had come to a halt next to Aaron's table and for a moment he thought with horror that she'd come to say something to him until she placed the bottle and glasses on the next table over, where a pretty redhead was looking at her eagerly.

"Well? What happened? He's gorgeous. Did you get his number?"

The blonde woman blushed and shook her head. "He's married."

"Oh damn. All the good ones are," the redhead said, grabbing the bottle and pouring them each some wine. "What were you talking about for so long then?"

"His daughter."

Aaron couldn't stop himself from looking over then.

"Daughter?"

"I thought he was maybe divorced. Or widowed. He just kept going on and on about her. How smart she was. How proud he was of her. It was so sweet."

Aaron covered his mouth with his hand to hide his grin. He tuned them out as they moved on to other things, watching Robert manoeuvre his way back to him.

"Sorry."

Aaron couldn't help himself. He stood and grabbed Robert's face between his hands, kissing him as deeply as he could with a table in between them. If they'd been on their own he'd have crawled over the damn thing.

He heard the redhead gasp as they pulled apart and saw the blonde refill her wineglass out of the corner of his eye.

"What was that for?" Robert asked, sinking down into his seat and hooking his foot around Aaron's ankle. "Not that I'm complaining."

"I just love you a lot," Aaron told him, smiling at the look of happiness that spread over Robert's face. "Cheers."


End file.
